In my head I have a winter plan and I told the Shetland ponies that this new field would be their January field.

They didn’t need asking twice and I have left the adjoining gate open so I can feed them in their old field, which is easier to reach.

Every morning, I put out the buckets and the ponies canter up, eat it, have a quick row, clean up and then canter off back to their new field again without looking back or even saying thank you

You can guess who always starts the row.

I feed Vitamin and Fivla a little away from the rabble.

But this adjoining field has lots of shelter and old grass complete with some ditches of fresh flowing water.  Everything a small pony could need.

Fivla seems much happier this winter.  Ok, the weight is not dropping off but she is keeping up, walking, trotting and cantering along giving as good as she gets.  That’s all I want for her.

The ponies’ backs are all completely soaked to the skin and hopefully the next few dry days should help them.

And surprisingly, in a planticrub (a small square, circular or rectangular enclosure used for growing root crops, usually without an entrance.  – Canmore) in the field is a monkey puzzle tree.

We didn’t plant it – it was there when we bought the croft years ago and it goes along growing, something threatening to die, but mostly it is alive through nothing we have done.

It is not something you see often in Shetland and luckily the ponies can’t get to it.